Clippers guard Patrick Beverley, one of the NBA’s top defensive players and the key piece in the blockbuster Chris Paul trade with the Houston Rockets last summer, underwent season-ending right knee surgery, the team announced Wednesday.(AP Photo/Michael Owen Baker)

Clippers guard Patrick Beverley, one of the NBA’s top defensive players and the key piece in the blockbuster Chris Paul trade with the Houston Rockets last summer, underwent season-ending right knee surgery, the team announced Wednesday.

Dr. Walt Lowe performed an arthroscopic meniscus repair and a microfracture procedure at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center in Houston. Typical recovery and rehabilitation time for microfracture surgery can be from between six and nine months.

Beverley left the Clippers after Monday’s game against the Knicks in New York, the team’s ninth consecutive defeat, and traveled to Houston for the procedure. He was sidelined for five games because of knee soreness, but returned to the lineup to play 22 minutes against the Knicks.

“That’s a tough one,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers told reporters in Atlanta, where the reeling team faced the Hawks. “You could see him trying to get back and he plays the one game and then his knee really starts bothering him. We sent him back to look at it and he ends up having surgery.

“We thought it would just end up being meniscus and it turns out to be a lot more. So, he’s out for the season. We just want him to get healthy. We still get to do our jobs and he doesn’t. … It’s a tough blow for the team, but I feel worse for Patrick.”

Rivers said he didn’t expect the Clippers to seek a trade for a replacement for Beverley, 29.

“I feel horrible for Pat,” Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank said in an email to the Southern California News Group. “He is a fierce competitor, who loves being on the floor. As you can imagine, he is disappointed, but also knows how much of an impact he can still have on our team. Pat is a tough guy and will come back even stronger. Dr. Lowe is confident Pat will make a 100 percent recovery.”

The Clippers acquired Beverley, a shooting guard, in a multi-player trade with the Rockets for Paul during the offseason. Beverley, a first-team all-defensive team player with the Rockets last season, averaged 12.2 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.9 assists in 11 games with the Clippers.

Beverley sat out for most of the preseason because of soreness in the same knee, but it was not considered serious and he returned in time to lead the Clippers to a 4-0 start. The Clippers (5-11) have lost 11 of 12 games since then, with their only victory coming over the Dallas Mavericks (3-15).

In addition, the Clippers have been without point guard Milos Teodosic since he suffered a plantar fascia injury in his left foot in the second game of the season, Oct. 21. Small forward Danilo Gallinari has been sidelined by a strained left glute since Nov. 5.

It’s uncertain when they’ll return to the court, leaving three-fifths of the team’s starting lineup on opening night sidelined for the foreseeable future. Sindarius Thornwell has replaced Beverley, Austin Rivers has subbed for Teodosic and Wesley Johnson has played in place of Gallinari.

Doc Rivers called Beverley “the heart of our team in a lot of ways.”

“These are tough times,” Doc Rivers added in a TV interview. “You’re losing games, you’re losing players. Or you don’t even have players. But these are also times, from a coaching standpoint, to teach and get guys in the right spots. You can always learn from this. There’s a silver lining somewhere.”

Elliott Teaford covers the Clippers and the NBA for the Southern California News Group. He has written about hockey for the past five years and is looking forward to thawing out after so many days and nights sitting in frozen rinks. He also covered the Lakers for five seasons, including their back-to-back NBA championships in 2009 and '10. He once made a jump shot over future Utah Jazz center Mark Eaton during a pickup game in 1980 at Cypress College.

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